Print your photos
I'm as bad at this as anybody, even though I should totally know better. We go on a vacation, and I take a million photos. Six months later I've finally edited them, and I'll post them to a Facebook album, and then that is where they sit. They're backed up on a hard drive, somewhere (okay actually, my hard drive is BONKERS ORGANIZED but still.) I think to myself "I should really print some of those."Or I've paid another wonderful photographer to take photos of my little family, because I can't do them myself. I look over the shots, and I'm filled with joy at how happy we all look, and I post them to Facebook and back them up to my hard drive. And again. They sit.
I've been on both sides of this, and they both end with me being sort of lazy about getting photos printed. Which is why I started including prints with every single wedding collection that I offer, and have found some great products for portrait clients to choose from. There are two reasons that I really strongly urge people to print their photos, whether it's their own personal stuff (phone photos are really high resolution these days, and you can easily get a nice 8x10 out of them) or something you've hired a professional to shoot for you.
One, you can enjoy them right now. I pretty recently got our family photos framed and up on the wall, and they make me happy every time I go upstairs to bed. We have a few albums from past trips, and I'm working on getting some more made, and it's fun to flip back through them – especially as quickly as our boy changes. We have photos all over the house, and it was one of the first things we did when we moved in, because it makes it feel like people live here.Thankfully, I've found vendors that make it really easy for you to make this happen. The framed prints listed in my wedding collections arrive totally ready to hang. They print the photo on archival paper, frame and matte it, and attach photo wire to hang it. Literally all you have to do is put it on the wall. Gallery canvases are the same deal, they have a different look to them, but are still ready to hang when you get them.
The albums are designed by yours truly (did you know my BS is in graphic design?), then press printed into a hinged album, which means they lie nice and flat when open, and you can put a big beautiful photo across that spread. They also have a TON of cover options, including eco friendly and vegan ones, so they're sure to have something that'll look amazing on your bookshelf or coffee table. I spent a long time looking for a nice balance between albums that are really good quality but don't cost more than my car, and these made me happy on quality AND price.
The other reason I encourage folks to print their photos is that I have a hard time picturing my grandkids saying "let's boot up Gram's old MacBook and see what's on there!" Technology changes fast. My undergraduate thesis is on floppy disks, good luck finding a computer to open those with these days. But you'll always be able to look at paper with your eyeballs (or, possibly, some kind of cyborg VR contraption. Again, technology's fast). Granted, paper degrades over time, but I'll still take the fragile yellowed photos we have of family over no photos at all.Interested in booking a session where I send you some ready to hang wall art after? Head over to the contact page to book one now.
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